Israel’s international isolation, triggered by revulsion over the large-scale illegal killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, will only deepen following new, detailed and credible allegations that leading politicians and intelligence agencies conspired – with help from Donald Trump’s administration – to spy on, undermine, “improperly influence” and threaten the work and officials of the international criminal court (ICC).
以色列因对加沙大规模非法杀害巴勒斯坦平民的厌恶而引发的国际孤立只会进一步加深，因为主要政界人士和情报机构在唐纳德·特朗普政府的帮助下合谋进行间谍活动、破坏、“不当影响”并威胁国际刑事法院（ICC）的工作和官员。
Those allegedly targeted include the court’s former chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and the present incumbent, Karim Khan, possibly still the subject of covert operations. If so, this must cease immediately. Once again, the world is confronted by dismaying evidence that the state of Israel under the destructive leadership of its rightwing prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has gone rogue.
据称，目标包括法院前首席检察官法图·本苏达（Fatou Bensouda）和现任首席检察官卡里姆·汗（Karim Khan），他们可能仍然是秘密行动的对象。如果是这样，这种情况必须立即停止。世界再次面临令人沮丧的证据，表明以色列国在右翼总理本杰明·内塔尼亚胡的破坏性领导下已经变得流氓无赖。
Once again, Netanyahu has crossed a line. Once again, his contempt for global opinion, for the values of the western democracies which too unquestioningly sustain and arm his country, and for the most basic principles of international law is on galling display. For all those who have previously supported Israel, and especially after Hamas’s appalling 7 October attacks, this is, once again, a deep disappointment.
内塔尼亚胡再一次越界了。他再次表现出对全球舆论、对毫无疑问支撑和武装他的国家的西方民主价值观以及对国际法最基本原则的蔑视。对于所有以前支持以色列的人来说，尤其是在哈马斯 10 月 7 日发动骇人听闻的袭击之后，这再次令人深感失望。
The allegations are the product of a joint investigation published this week by the Guardian, the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call. They have been officially denied by the prime minister’s office as “false and unfounded” and intended to cause harm to Israel. But none of the specific claims has so far been addressed. That is now an urgent necessity.
这些指控是《卫报》、以色列-巴勒斯坦出版物 +972 杂志和希伯来语媒体 Local Call 本周联合调查的结果。总理办公室正式否认这些言论是“虚假且毫无根据的”，并意图对以色列造成伤害。但迄今为止，所有具体指控均未得到解决。这是现在的迫切需要。
Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition already faced unprecedented diplomatic censure and criticism from friends and enemies alike. The UN security council and general assembly, the EU, Arab states, numerous aid agencies and even, belatedly, the Biden administration have all demanded a halt to its assault on Gaza, which Israel invaded after the October massacres of 1,200 people.
内塔尼亚胡的极右翼联盟已经面临前所未有的外交谴责以及朋友和敌人的批评。联合国安理会和大会、欧盟、阿拉伯国家、众多援助机构，甚至拜登政府都要求停止对加沙的袭击。以色列在 10 月份屠杀了 1,200 人后入侵了加沙。
All appeals have been flatly rejected by Netanyahu and his ultra-nationalist allies, whose militarily and politically unrealistic aim is to totally destroy Hamas. The latest result of this defiant, self-harming refusal to end the slaughter is the decision by Ireland, Spain and Norway to join a majority of countries in recognising Palestinian statehood.
所有的呼吁都被内塔尼亚胡和他的极端民族主义盟友断然拒绝，他们的军事和政治目标是彻底摧毁哈马斯，这是不切实际的。这种挑衅、自残、拒绝结束屠杀的最新结果是爱尔兰、西班牙和挪威决定与大多数国家一起承认巴勒斯坦国家地位。
More pressure has come from the UN’s international court of justice (ICJ), which ordered Israel to halt its Rafah attacks, allow unrestricted aid supplies, and open Gaza to UN-led investigations. Yet the most dramatic recent development is from the ICC, with Khan’s decision to seek arrest warrants for Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant on charges of Gaza-related war crimes and crimes against humanity.
来自联合国国际法院（ICJ）的压力更大，该法院命令以色列停止对拉法的袭击，允许不受限制的援助供应，并向联合国主导的调查开放加沙。然而，最近最引人注目的事态发展来自国际刑事法院，汗决定以与加沙有关的战争罪和反人类罪为内塔尼亚胡和国防部长约夫·加兰特寻求逮捕令。
This is exactly the outcome Israel’s leaders sought to avoid, and was, presumably, the prime motivation for their alleged subversion of the ICC. Their reaction has been furious. Netanyahu, prime minister for nearly all of the period in question, denounced the move as blatant antisemitism and urged all “civilised” countries to reject it. And veiled threats have been made against Khan.
这正是以色列领导人试图避免的结果，并且可能是他们所谓颠覆国际刑事法院的主要动机。他们的反应非常激烈。内塔尼亚胡几乎在整个时期担任总理，谴责此举是公然的反犹太主义，并敦促所有“文明”国家拒绝这一举动。汗还受到了隐晦的威胁。
This latest crisis in Israel’s relationship with international justice – always fraught, given its long-established practice of ignoring UN security council resolutions relating to the post-1967 occupation – has been brewing since 2015. That was when Bensouda, Khan’s predecessor at the ICC, decided to examine possible crimes in the Palestinian territories committed by Israeli occupying forces and Palestinian groups.
以色列与国际司法关系的最新危机自 2015 年以来一直在酝酿 — — 考虑到以色列长期以来无视联合国安理会有关 1967 年后占领的决议的做法，这一危机始终令人担忧。决定审查以色列占领军和巴勒斯坦团体在巴勒斯坦领土上可能犯下的罪行。
It is hardly surprising that Israel’s intelligence services, acting under political direction, interested themselves in the ICC’s activities. Naturally, they wanted to know what actions might ensue. But the Guardian’s investigation raises a key question: did Mossad, Shin Bet and agencies of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) resort to improper, unlawful and, indeed, criminal means in their hunt for information?
以色列情报部门在政治指导下对国际刑事法院的活动感兴趣也就不足为奇了。自然，他们想知道接下来会采取什么行动。但《卫报》的调查提出了一个关键问题：摩萨德、辛贝特和以色列国防军 (IDF) 机构在寻找信息时是否使用了不当、非法甚至犯罪手段？
If the secret tapping and recording of Bensouda’s and other ICC officials’ phone and email conversations, alleged attempts to compromise her and smear her family, and personally threatening behaviour by a senior figure in Israeli intelligence constitute unlawful means – and reasonable people might conclude they do – then Netanyahu and his confederates have some very serious questions to answer.
如果对本苏达和其他国际刑事法院官员的电话和电子邮件对话进行秘密窃听和录音、据称试图妥协她并抹黑她的家人，以及以色列情报高级官员的人身威胁行为构成非法手段，那么理性的人可能会得出这样的结论： – 那么内塔尼亚胡和他的同伙有一些非常严肃的问题需要回答。
So, too, does Trump, who shares with Netanyahu the rare distinction of being a currently active national leader facing criminal charges. The investigation found that Israeli and Trump administration officials met in Washington in 2020 and allegedly discussed ways to thwart ICC inquiries into possible criminality both in Palestine and by US forces in Afghanistan.
特朗普也是如此，他与内塔尼亚胡有着罕见的区别，都是目前活跃的国家领导人，面临刑事指控。调查发现，以色列和特朗普政府官员于 2020 年在华盛顿会面，据称讨论了阻止国际刑事法院对巴勒斯坦和驻阿富汗美军可能犯罪行为进行调查的方法。
One apparent upshot was a decision by Trump to impose arbitrary sanctions on ICC officials, including Bensouda (which Joe Biden, his successor as president, has since rescinded). Following Khan’s decision to seek the arrest of Netanyahu and Gallant (as well as Hamas leaders), Trump has again gone on the attack while, shamefully, a group of Republican senators has told Khan they plan to target him personally if he pursues the matter.
By attacking the ICC, Netanyahu, nothing if not predictable, has again confused his own personal interests with Israel’s by claiming the court poses a danger to the entire country.
In sharp contrast, Bensouda and Khan have displayed courage and dignity in facing down overt and covert threats from some of the most prominent and unscrupulous actors on today’s international stage – including, for example, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, indicted last year over alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Having dared to do his duty and speak truth to power, Khan should be able to count on the firm support of all 124 state parties to the court.
The fact that he cannot is a disgrace, particularly for Britain, which was instrumental in creating the ICC when Labour’s Robin Cook was foreign secretary. Rishi Sunak described Khan’s move against Netanyahu as “deeply unhelpful”. Biden called it “outrageous”. Putin and Xi Jinping in China, sworn enemies of the global rules-based order, must be laughing their socks off as they watch the democratic west pull itself apart over Israel’s outlaw behaviour.
The onus is now on Netanyahu and his associates to show some respect for international opinion and common decency by answering, line by line, these well-founded allegations of an almost decade-long Israeli vendetta against the ICC. If they fail to do so, it’s probably because, in all truth, they cannot.
Trump-like, they will double down on lies. Yet the world will know the truth, just as it has slowly come to know the truth of Gaza. The truth is, Israel under Netanyahu’s leadership, at a moment of truly dreadful national trauma, has gone rogue. It will not begin to heal until he, like the leaders of Hamas, is made to answer for his actions in a court of law.
Simon Tisdall is the Observer’s foreign affairs commentator
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